Sunday, July 30, 2017

Frankie
Rowe, who might well be the last of those who claimed to have handled debris
from the Roswell UFO crash, has died. According to Don Schmitt, on Wednesday, July 26, she had surgery but was home on Friday, on the mend. In the afternoon, she mentioned to her daughter that she was feeling cold when she suddenly collapsed. The medics arrived in about five minutes and she was conscious when she was put in the ambulance. When she lost consciousness, they attempted three resuscitations but after the third, they realized there was little hope. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Frankie Rowe. Photo copyright by
Kevin Randle

I
first met Frankie Rowe about a quarter of a century ago when Don Schmitt and I
had just finished a presentation in Roswell. She had been in the audience and
afterward talked to us briefly. We would meet with her many times over the
years as she told of her experiences back in July 1947.

There
is no doubt that she had lived in Roswell at the time. Her father, Dan Dwyer,
was a fire fighter, among other things. Frankie had told us that he had come
home one day and told them about the crash and the creatures that he had seen.
Dwyer died before any of us could interview him, but Frankie’s story was not
stand alone. Frankie’s sister, Helen Cahill and former fire fighter J. C. Smith
both said they had heard the story from Dwyer. Smith said that Dwyer had driven
out to the crash site in his car rather than in

Dan Dwyer, Frankie's father, on the far left.

equipment from the fire
department.

Frankie
said that she had been in Roswell and while at the fire department sometime
later, a state trooper had stopped by. He said that he had a piece of the
debris. Frankie described it as light weight and that it flowed like quicksilver.

Over
the years she added few details telling us about a visit from a military
officer ordering her to keep the tale to herself. Originally, she just said
that the officer had told her that if she ever mentioned the story her mother
and father would end up in Orchard Park, which had been a POW camp during the Second
World War. Later it would seem the threats had been more violent and more
direct.

One
day she called me in a panic because she had had the telephone company out to
repair her telephone. The man found what he thought to be a tap on her phone
and Frankie was sure that the government was watching her now that she had told
us about her experiences. We talked for about two hours. I don’t know if her
phone had actually been tapped or if the repairman had misinterpreted something
on the line. Whatever it was, Frankie was convinced that she was being
monitored by the government.

I
found her to be a kind lady who had an extraordinary experience. I don’t
believe I ever heard her say anything negative about anyone, though in the
Roswell case accusations were often thrown around. Once she had told us, that
is Don and me, the full tale, she didn’t change the story. It had taken a while
for her to trust us, but once she did, she confided in us and looked to us for
help.

I
last saw her a number of years ago at one of the more recent Roswell festivals.
She was living in Roswell at the time and we had a nice chat. Later she would
move to Breckenridge, Texas, where she died on July 28. She was 84.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

For
those who wanted to hear Peter Robbins, he had a family emergency, but
fortunately I had already talked with James Clarkson about the show. He wasn’t
actually a fill-in, but one who appeared a week before I had planned, meaning I
moved him up in the schedule. So, I thank James for coming on the show to tell
us about his reasons for resigning as the Washington State Director of MUFON.
You can listen to the discussion here:

I
did ask for a little bit of James’ history with MUFON and how he became
interested in UFOs as a way of establishing his long-time interest in the
subject. Once that was understood, and it was clear that James was not someone
who had entered the field in the last couple of years, we explored the tasks of
a state director, which is a somewhat thankless job. One of the things I
learned was that every state director is required to attend the annual MUFON
symposium. That meant the symposium this year had an income of $17,500.00
before anything else was accomplished. Apparently, this year’s symposium,
claiming a secret space program, was well attended. Many of those didn’t seem
to care that much of it was unfounded, unverified and unproven tales of those
who said they had participated in that program. You can read more about that
here:

I
was interested in what had caused James to resign as the state director. He
provided a list of reasons, including some of the things that Jan Harzan had
said when I had interviewed him about those in the MUFON Inner Circle. You can
listen to that interview here:

While
it might seem that I’m waging a war on MUFON, such is not the case. I wanted to
hear from James about his reasons for resigning. I wanted to know why several
others had also quit MUFON. And I realize that the real work, of investigation
UFO sightings and gathering data, is done by those at the lower levels who
volunteer their time and money to learn what they can. I suppose you could say
that most of us see the direction of MUFON changing for the worse.

Friday, July 21, 2017

(Blogger’s Note: I’m sure
that you all remember the stir caused by the revelation of yet another
eyewitness to the Roswell UFO crash. This was Charles Forgus whose story was
told in Dr. Irena Scott’s book, UFOs
TODAY, 70 Years of Lies, Misinformation and Government Cover-Up. Here, is
the update on that story, supplied by Philip Mantle who has communicated with
Forgus family members. This takes the story out of the Roswell narrative, but
indicates that it deserves a footnote in it.)

Information and story by

Philip Mantle

In June 2017, I released the testimony of the late Deputy Sheriff
Charles Forgus who claimed that he had been a witness to the UFO crash at
Roswell in 1947. He was the Deputy Sheriff in Big Springs, Texas
after serving in the military during WWII.

Charles ForgusPhoto copyright by Philip Mantle

In brief, he claimed that he was en-route to Roswell with the Sheriff, Jess Slaughter, to
pick up a prisoner. When approaching the Roswell
area, they heard about the crash on the Police radio and drove to the area in
question. Once there they observed the recovery of a 110-foot UFO and dead
alien bodies before being told to leave the area. This testimony was given to a
US
private investigator by the name of Deanna Short. Sadly, this lady had also
passed away. There is a video interview of Mr Forgus where he details these
events.

This testimony was investigated by myself and Irena Scott PhD the
Mutual UFO Network. Dr Scott revealed the full information in her book ‘UFOs TODAY, 70 Years of Lies, Misinformation
and Government Cover-Up’ and I published it in various UFO publications and
it was also featured in the online editions of several of the UK’s national
newspapers.

One of the reasons for releasing the testimony of the late Charles
Forgus was in the hope that either a family member of a friend might come
forward with some further information. We knew this was along shot but there
was no reason why we should not give it a try.

It therefore came as a surprise that I was contacted via social
media on July 17th by a nephew of the late Deputy Sheriff Forgus. He
does not wish his name used in public but I do have it on file. This is what
the nephew had to say:

Hello, I just discovered the video you posted of the interview with
CH Forgus. He was my uncle. Interestingly, he never spoke to us about this
incident when I was young and I only recently found out about the story from an
east coast MUFON investigator. I can tell you, he is not a person who would
have fabricated this story. He was very straight laced and no-nonsense type of
person...that's why he was in law enforcement. I have the full transcript of
the interview if you would like to read and post it. Thank you.

Quite naturally I replied and informed the nephew that I already had
the transcript in question as it was me who had released it. He went on to add,
“One thing I will mention, my uncles' sighting was not at Roswell. He was a
deputy in 1953. I have a very good MUFON report I will forward to you on the
event.”

Again, I thanked him for this and I have the MUFON report in
question. MUFON had researched the claims of Deputy Sheriff Forgus and had
speculated that he might have been witness to an event in 1953 and not
1947. One thing that is certain is that
the Sheriff he stated he was with at the time, Jess Slaughter, was not the
Sheriff in 1947. He was a Sheriff in the 1930’s and the 1950’s but not the
1940’s.

The nephew supplied me with his email address and he added to his comments
on July 19th:

I don’t have any other pictures of him. He has a son, Glen Lee Forgus,
and a daughter Toma Forgus, but I haven’t kept in touch with them. I know
Glen Lee lives in California
and he has two daughters as well. I found a phone listing a few months
ago and called Glen Lee and left a message, but never got a response. I would
guess CH spoke to them, but I don’t have any current contact information.
We were not a close family.

The only other person that might know the story is his nephew,
Charles Buzzbee in Big Spring,
Texas. You might try and contact
him. His mother was CH’s sister. I would also believe he would have
mentioned it to his brother, my father, but if you knew the Forgus family and
west Texans in particular, Uncle CH would have been roundly made fun of for
sharing his experience. That’s what assures me all the more that he is telling
the truth. He was ex-military and ex-law enforcement and was not the type
of a person to make up a story like this. I knew him well and can tell you his
personality was not one that liked or sought the spotlight. He was also
not an imaginative person to create such a story.

He was very straight laced like all of the Forgus men and women for
that matter. It was certainly a very different time when they grew up and my
father’s family grew up very poor. So, they were extremely pragmatic and not
ones for hyperbole. They believed only what they could see and hold.

I hope this is of some help.

The nephew has supplied me [Philip Mantle] with two contact numbers
and addresses of these other family members and I am in the process of
contacting both of them as we speak. If I get a reply I will of course let you
know.

Unfortunately, the nephew could shed no light on the claims made by
his late uncle but we feel vindicated in releasing this material as we did as
it has brought this gentleman forward who in turn has supplied the details of
another two, family members. Whether they will be able to offer any further
information remains to be seen.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

This
week I spoke with Alejandro Rojas, a UFO researcher, writer and broadcaster
with a wide range of interests and a long history in the UFO field. I did have
an agenda in mind, but as so often happens, the direction of the discussion was
dictated by the answers to the questions. We didn’t make it to a couple of the
things that I thought would be interesting. You can listen to it here:

(And,
as always, if the link doesn’t work, look to A Different Perspective on Youtube
with the guest’s name attached and that should get you there.)

This
is not to say that the show wasn’t interesting. We talked about Alejandro’s
investigation of the Stan Romanek’s UFO sightings and his video and photographs
of an alien creature. Getting Alejandro’s personal insight, from someone who
spent time with Romanek and his family is interesting.

We
also delved into MJ-12 and his conclusions about the validity of the documents.
He seems to think about them the same way that I do, and which, I believe, the
majority of those who have looked at the case think. In other words, the
evidence for a hoax is overwhelming and in the world today, it’s fairly clear
who created those documents and the reason behind them.

Anyway,
the show was side ranging and filled with information that should be
interesting to a cross section of the listeners.

Monday, July 17, 2017

Because
it isn’t time for the premiere of Game of
Thrones Season 7, and I have nothing better to do, I thought I’d kick
another sleeping dog (sorry of that analogy offends). For laughs, I took a look
at the Pteranodano photograph that was allegedly taken by Billy Meier during a
July 1975 trip to a world some 9.38 billion light years away which is about
halfway across the known universe. It’s a badly focused picture with little
real detail that is actually somewhat reminiscent of those first photographs taken
in the early 19th century but you can recognize the flying dinosaur.

Billy Meier

This
photograph wasn’t published in any of Meier’s books as near as I can tell, but
was shown around the United States as part of a program about Meier’s space and
time travels. I wanted to find a way to connect it to Meier as the photographer
because some of what I had seen didn’t provide any real source. I did find a
connection at:

In
the course of the presentation, it was said that Meier had taken the picture,
as he had those of other dinosaurs. We were even treated to a picture of Meier
in a spacesuit walking about on another planet, outside the spacecraft so that
he could get the pictures (which has been identified as a picture from a
science fiction movie).

Karumudi Mahesh
Chowdary tells me the video showing two people flipping through an album
containing Meier's space and time travel photographs are Wendelle Stevens
(flipping the album) and Randolph Winters (holding camcorder) in 1989. Winters and Wendelle are just flipping through Meier’s album taking pictures of the
pictures Meier had taken. But as I say this established a link between Meier and the
picture of the Pteranodano.

Note
that the alleged trip was in July 1975. That date is important because various
researchers and interested parties found a much clearer illustration of that
particular dinosaur in a book about dinosaurs. The illustration was apparently
painted in 1960 and appeared in a book published in 1972, or some three years
before Meier took the picture. This would seem to prove, in at least one case,
Meier had attempted to pass off a poor photograph of a painting by an
Earth-based artist as a real photograph of a dinosaur. You can see the
photographs at:

The
dinosaur pictures, both the painting and the alleged photograph (yes, I know it
is a real photograph but it is a photograph of a painting) can be found
beginning at 6:31 in this video.

Well,
not so fast say the champions of Meier’s claims. This has all been explained
though not as clearly as I would like. It might be that the translation I was
reading wasn’t as good as it could have been so we can overlook some of the
technical problems. I found my way to:

Here
we learn that Meier didn’t take the photograph, but it was in with those that
he had taken. Now the story becomes a little more complicated, but I think I
have sorted it out. We are told, “In their blindness and
their investigative delusion, BEAM’s [BEAM being Meier’s initials or in other
words, it is Meier] opponents stubbornly and firmly maintain that the
aforementioned photo was personally taken by ‘Billy’ on the space journey in
July of 1975, without concerning themselves, however, with the true history of
its origin and the actual contexts of the picture.”

Well, we did see a
video of that claim being made. That the picture had been taken by Meier, so
those who are suggesting it have a good case. But, again, there is another
twist here. “After the freshly developed dinosaur pictures were in the hands of
‘Billy,’ these were seen and inspected by Quetzal [Quetzal was Commander of all
Plejaren stations in our solar system]. During this, dozens of pictures
were noted by him, which quite clearly could not have come from the world NEBER
[the planet Meier visited in July 1975] and, therefore, had not been taken by ‘Billy,’
about which Quetzal got very angry. It was obvious that false and manipulated
pictures had been foisted on BEAM once more by a foreign hand. Many of the
pictures had obviously been photographed from a book and were to have been
smuggled into BEAM’s photo collection as so-called cuckoo’s eggs.”

So Meier had them in a
photo album that itself was photographed by Horn and Stevens. While that doesn’t
seem to match with the later tale, we learn, “Before the original photos were
removed and destroyed by Quetzal, however, the foundation member of FIGU, Guido
Moosbrugger, came into the possession of some copies. However, he had to make the
promise to the Plejaren and ‘Billy,’ never to make the copies available to the
public or to get rid of these in any way because the falsification from a
foreign hand was also among the preserved photos. Should he fail to comply with
the instruction, the pictures would have to be immediately confiscated and
destroyed by the Plejaren, as this also happened with the originals of ‘Billy.’
To this day, Guido Moosbrugger feels bound to his promise and has always kept
the pictures under wraps.”

But, of course, he
didn’t because somehow the picture was released, even if only on a poor-quality
video made of the pictures in Meier’s photo album. But that still doesn’t
actually explain where they originated. The excuse:

The Plejaren’s
investigations into this incident yielded the following: Since the “Men in
Black” organization, which committed itself to “Billy,” couldn’t eliminate him
after several failed assassination attempts (ultimately 21 of these overall),
it very strongly forced individuals who were cooperating with “Billy,” like the
aforementioned photographer Schmid, to bring BEAM into discredit. So they
meticulously planned their intrigues and defamation for the long run;
consequently, the effects of their machinations should have first begun to work
themselves out in the near future. Several times, the “Men in Black” also tried
to achieve their goal at the Semjase Silver Star Center with attacks on the
vehicles of the members or by intimidations and kidnapping attempts of the
children, etc. In this form, also the photographer Schmid, whom “Billy” had
incorporated with the permission of the Pleiadians/Plejaren, was forced by the
"Men in Black" to produce falsifications of the photographs. On
several occasions, pictures that Schmid had received from “Billy” were
falsified from the ground up or replaced by forgeries, as this also happened
with the Asket and Nera photos and with the aforementioned dinosaur photo. In
this way, Eduard A. Meier, already at the beginning of his contacts with the
Pleiadians/Plejaren, received false slides, negatives or manipulated photos
back from Schmid unnoticed. This photographer has passed away in the meantime
and, therefore, is no longer able to provide any information at all on these machinations.
[Isn’t that convenient?]

Ironically, it seems that:

The fact is that the
opponents of “Billy” never concerned themselves in an honest form with the true
origin of the purported dinosaur pictures and did not investigate the actual
source. Otherwise, they would have discovered that the purported pictures were
not put into circulation by FIGU or “Billy” Meier but by a malevolent, foreign
hand [Michael Horn and Wendelle Stevens?], with the intent to harm him. Many
allegedly notable UFO researchers and self-proclaimed Meier experts, in their
investigative delusion, have jumped on the train of falsification and
prevarication, without examining the true sources. This practice can be found
on the Internet in innumerable articles about BEAM. Nevertheless, the actual
truth about the photo will one day let so many ufologists leap over the shadow
of embarrassing disgrace. In actual fact, no sound evidence exists, which
proves that the aforementioned photo was taken by “Billy” Meier. With not a
single word or written testimony has BEAM ever claimed this on his own, and
indeed, because of the simple fact that the aforementioned picture of the
pterosaur, along with many other forgeries, had not been taken by “Billy”
Eduard Albert Meier himself but had been foisted on him by a foreign hand
[though on the video, that claim is made]. These facts correspond to the truth,
even if the truth doesn’t want to be accepted by his opposition – as is the
case so often.

Finally, to explain
all of this, we learn:

The truth about the
so-called dinosaur photos will hardly be published by the notorious
occupational critics because through the aforementioned photo, a certain
inconsistency in the Meier UFO Case can actually be found – an inconsistency
that certainly makes sense since the image does, in fact, concern a forgery. To
the disappointment of all the glorious investigative specialists, the forgery
was, however, not created by BEAM but rather by his opposition – completely in
line with: BEAM’s Men in Black opponents hoodwink BEAM’s ufologist opponents.
There, two drunks probably beat on each other’s fingers[whatever the hell that
means]. But at least a good job must be granted to BEAM’s opponents, with
regard to the discovery of this forgery. The book found to have been used for
this is not a bad achievement and is also of good use for FIGU. As a critical,
searching, and inquiring human being - even in the case of “Billy” Meier – I am
fully aware of a certain sense of achievement in investigation. I must admit,
however, that I much prefer to use my time and energy for an argumentation in
favor of the true truth about BEAM than for superficial and blind faultfinding.

But
that’s not all. According to Matt Knight in a comment to this blog, the
copyright date on the book had been changed as just another way to discredit
Meier. Knight wrote to my earlier post, “I've finally realized
what Mahesh's [another of those posting a comment] problem is. He obviously has
never experienced life in a culture where making backdated books to fool the
public would be taken very seriously by authorities and would be a punishable
crime if it were true [I’m not sure what crime this would be]. Switzerland is
not the kind of country where anyone can make cheap knock-off T-shirts,
passports, websites, or, blogs and claim they have real value.”

In
case it wasn’t clear there, Horn added, “To follow up on Matt's
correct assessment of Mahesh's problems in part stemming from lack of
experience with a culture such as Switzerland, Mahesh fails to understand the
mechanism of pre-digital book publishing, where it was common for books to take
a year - or even years - to be published.”

So now we have a
couple of excuses for way the fake picture was claimed to be one that Meier had
taken. First, it wasn’t taken by him but slipped into a bunch of other pictures
that he had taken as a way to discredit him. The Men in Black did it or maybe
it was the CIA.

Now we learn that the
book that held the actual illustration, had a faked copyright date on it. A
backdated book to fool the public so that we can see the vast conspiracy out there
attempting to discredit Meier.

Then Horn chimes in
with the fact that books, back in the old days which, of course, was the last
part of the 20th century, sometimes took months and even years to be
published. This would be relevant if the book was copyrighted at the time of
submission of the manuscript, but that’s not the way it worked. The copyright
date was the month and year in which it was published.

What
we are left with is evidence that Meier had taken a picture of a Pteranodon
that was an illustration from a book published two years earlier. Caught with
this problem, we learn that Meier hadn’t taken the picture but some
unidentified organization whose mission it was to discredit Meier had taken the
picture and slipped it in with all the others that Meier had taken on that day
in July. It’s not completely clear how they might have done that, only that
they had.

That
picture, identified as a fake by Quetzal, and who demanded that it be
destroyed, failed to get that done, and the next thing we know it is being
circulated by Meier’s pals, Horn and Stevens, as the real thing. But when it is
discovered that it was part of another, earlier book, we learn that this was
not a picture taken by Meier but someone else. You just have to ask if any of
this makes any sense at all.

These
are the facts as presented about this picture. Is this alone enough to
discredit Meier, or was it really some conspiracy cooked up by the Men in
Black. I believe this does suggest something about the reliability of the Meier
testimony. Others, I guess, will disagree.

Sunday, July 16, 2017

(Blogger’s Note: Given the response to
the articles on Snake Island and Oak Island, I thought this tale, from New
Mexico, might excite those interested in treasure. Given the numbers of those
who have read it, and the lack of response, it seems that I was wrong about
that. However, for those of you who like a good story, one that seems based in
fact, though those facts might not be what you think, I’ll continue with this
to the very end.)

The malpais north of the canyon of gold. Photocopyright by Kevin Randle

Eight
days after the provisioning party had left, they were expected to return, but
they didn’t. On the ninth day Adams, and his bunk mate, sometimes identified as
Dutch Davis but most often as Jack Davidson, decided to ride out to meet them.
As they neared the entrance to the canyon, they heard shooting. As they crept
closer, they saw that the Apaches had attacked the provisioning party and they
were all dead, the supplies scattered.

Or,
according in other versions, when he and Davidson arrived at the entrance to
the canyon, they found the supply party had been killed, the supplies either
stolen or dumped out on the ground. For some reason, Adams would claim they hid
the five bodies before heading back to the camp. They didn’t find the body of
Brewer, however.

That
finished, Adams raced back to warn the other but before he could get there, the
miners were attacked. Adams, along with Davidson, hid among the rocks and
trees, watching as the remaining prospectors fought to save themselves. One of
them broke from the defense and tried to reach the cabin, but the Apaches
caught him far short of it. There were a few in the cabin, but the Apaches set
it on fire.

As
the fighting tapered, Adams knew there was nothing he could do to save the few
miners remaining. If he and Davidson stayed where they were, they might
survive. They could hear the Apaches, in the distance, celebrating their
victory.

In
one of those other versions, Adams and Davidson were again too late. The other
miners had been killed. Now the Apaches, which included both warriors and women,
were celebrating the victory. They were dancing around the smoking remains of
the cabin with the heads of the miners on poles.

Adams
knew the Apaches weren’t stupid and it was clear that they had been watching
the prospectors from the moment they arrived in the canyon. They knew how many men
had entered and how many had left for supplies and they would soon discover
that at least two of the men had slipped away to hide somewhere. The German, Snively
was either hiding as well, or had left before the attack. The point was that
the Apaches should have known that three or four men had somehow gotten away.

Adams
and Davidson remained where they were, through the heat of the day, trying to
ignore the celebration near the cabin. Once it was dark and there were no more signs
of any Apaches, he and Davidson sneaked back to the cabin. Under the hearth,
was a container filled with gold nuggets. Adams thought it held about a hundred
thousand dollars, and that it was worth the risk to recover it.

Adams
would tell those who listened to his stories that after midnight, “The first
thing we did was make our way back to the cabin. I thought we might be able to
get the gold hidden there.” But the cabin still smoldered and it was too hot to
get close enough to recover the gold. Instead, they filled their canteens from
the stream, and as they were getting ready to leave, Adams remembered that he
had hidden a couple of nuggets in a tree stump on the first day of prospecting.
He thought he could find them without additional risk.

They
escaped from the mine, worked along the zigzag canyon, climbed down to the
plateau with the pumpkin patch and crossed it. By that time, it was beginning
to lighten and Adams didn’t want to travel in the daylight. They found a place
to hide and attempted to remove any traces of their passage. Adams would later
say that one group of Apaches had passed close to them, but didn’t find them.
Late in the afternoon, another group passed them, and again failed to find
them.

When
it was dark, Adams and Davidson left the plateau, worked their way down to the
dry stream bed and finally came out in the open desert. As the sun began to
rise, Adams seemed to be convinced they had eluded the Apaches and decided they
should keep going. Adams now believed that it was important to reach
civilization as quickly as possible. They didn’t have any food, limited water,
and the area was alive with now hostile Apaches.

For
the next week they traveled, resting in the heat of the afternoon, eating wild
grass, acorns and weeds. They found enough water to survive. Twice more they
dodged Apache scouting parties. On the seventh day, they were spotted by a
third, but Adams was too tired, too hungry and too discouraged to care. They
just kept moving but these Indians were friendly. As darkness fell, they
entered the friendly camp.

Adams
remained in the friendly village for weeks, regaining his strength and when he
felt up to it, he returned to Los Angeles. There he told his story to anyone
who would listen to him, drew maps for those who asked, but didn’t seem
interested in returning to New Mexico himself.

In
a slightly different version of the tale, Adams and Davidson stumbled through
the New Mexico desert for a week or ten days. When their horses collapsed, the
men shot them, boiling the meat for something to eat. They walked until the soles
of their boots wore out. The found the wagon trail that had been pointed out
and that would take them to Fort Wingate, but Adams didn’t know which direction
to take. Apparently, he picked the wrong one but eventually saw horsemen in the
distance which was a roving cavalry patrol from Fort Apache.

After
recuperating, Adams showed the doctor who had cared for him one of the nuggets
he had picked up. He shared with the doctor all the information he had about
the canyon, the landmarks and the massacre. The doctor said that he might try
to find the gold himself someday. That was the thing about Adams. He was always
ready to supply directions to those who thought them might want to find the
gold. Of course, he said that he was going to return for it as well, but it
would be years before that happened.

Don
mentioned some of the things he had been investigating in the UFO field
including the possibility of human mutilations. He talked about some of the
things he had observed in the field as he continued his work and how his
position as a police officer opened a few paths that were not available without
these law enforcement connections. And I mustn’t forget that he did mention
that he lived in Southern California.

Don
and I also talked about some of the trouble faced by MUFON and some of his
trouble with them over the years. He related a run in with Walt Andrus, one-time
International Director of MUFON in Las Vegas in 1989.

Friday, July 14, 2017

In
the course of discussing the problems faced by MUFON, I was contacted by
Michael Horn, who is the US representative of Billy Meier. Meier is, of course,
the

Billy Meier

man who claims contact with alien creatures going back to 1975, or maybe
even earlier depending on whether you count his alleged childhood contacts in
that number. I told Horn in the initial conversation that I was not a fan of
Meier, knew something of the case, but found Horn’s claim about MUFON ignoring
Meier to be of interest in what I was doing.

Horn
had told me that MUFON refused to book him into their Symposium (which, of
course, is their right) but did book others with equally dubious claims. I
mean, I can’t believe that some of those in the leadership of MUFON are
comfortable with time travelers and claims of a secret space program that has
apparently solved the problems of interstellar flight but will reject Meier.
If, as Jan Harzan, MUFON’s Executive Director, said, they are interested in
providing the information to the membership so that they can decide for
themselves what they wish to believe, then why not provide Meier, or Meier’s
American representative, with the same platform. I was commenting on the lack
of consistency but not endorsing the claims of Billy Meier. (Of course, Harzan
is right in not giving Horn a platform at the Symposium or any other MUFON
venue but that’s a whole other argument.)

This
resulted in a barrage of emails and comments by Horn filled with links to Meier
supporting sites, and one-sided arguments about the reality of Meier’s claims.
I followed the links which is why I know that. I didn’t find them particularly
persuasive. I had looked at the Meier claims in the past and even mentioned
that I had Kinder’s book, Light Years,
to prove that I had been aware of Meier for a long time and his claims of
contact were unproven, at least to me.

This,
apparently, annoyed Horn. Censorship was his claim, but it was more of
editorial decisions because I can’t publish everything and I don’t want to
publish something I don’t believe, unless of course, I’m using it to show how
outlandish some stories can be. Without editorial comment, it was a direction I
did not want to go. Oh, I’ve given others a chance to respond to my criticisms
without me making changes or deleting sections of their responses. Those have
been by invitation, such as saying, “If the so and so wishes to respond, I will
publish that response without comment.” Sometimes that just seems to be fair.

Horn
upped the ante then with other allegations which were little more than a
transparent attempt to manipulate me. To prove I wasn’t the things he said I
was, I would have to publish his comments, even when those comments were not
relevant to the original post. In other words, he was attempting to hijack part
of the blog. He wanted to turn it into another propaganda tool for him and
Billy Meier.

Well,
that’s not going to happen.

Instead,
I decided to update my knowledge of Meier and see what others had to say. The
consensus seemed to be that the Meier contact claims were not based in reality.
I fear mentioning names of those commentators here because I don’t think those others
need to be bombarded by emails from Michael Horn.

However,
I looked the Meier case up in Jerome Clark’s UFO Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition. It was surprising neutral
in tone which is a compliment to Jerry’s reporting. It is certainly skeptical
but not filled with the vitriol that sometimes passes for reasoned analyses.

I
did note that Jerry had reported, “To prove their reality to skeptical human
beings, Semjase [one of Meier’s alien women] said the Pleiadians would make
their ‘beamships’ visible to Meier, in turn Meier was to take as many
photographs as he could manage.”

This
struck me as silly because if the Pleiadians were interested in proving their
existence to the skeptics, why not make their beamships visible to a huge crowd
assembled for the purpose. With TV cameras rolling and hundreds taking
pictures, that would pretty much prove the case… with one man taking the
pictures at some secret location as some unspecified time without corroborating
witnesses, the pictures themselves proved nothing.

Following
in that theme, I found website run by New Mexico skeptics, which attempted to
explore some of the Meier claims. You can view the website here:

(You
might need to add the title, “MICHAEL HORN’S FAILURE PROVES THE MEIER CASE IS
FAKE!” to get to the right page.)

The
article was written by Anthony Wharton, St Helens, Merseyside, UK, in
2009 (which is why I mentioned his name). Wharton had, some five years earlier
or in 2004, asked Meier and Horn to produce some hard-physical evidence, which
in the world today Horn claims had been reviewed in proper scientific arenas. But,
Wharton wrote:

I very recently spoke to Meier and Horn, and
asked them why, in almost five years, they had failed to meet my challenge.
Their response was that they had put forward enough UFO physical evidence, and
to put forward any more would be pointless. They went on to speak about the
metal alloy samples that they put forward in the 1970's, which were looked at
by scientists at the time. In my response [Wharton] I pointed out that Meier
had not put forward a single scrap of new photographic evidence in well over 25
years. Why not? I also reminded Meier and Horn that their metal alloy samples
came back from the science laboratory with an official report. This report
concluded that the samples were 100% terrestrial in origin, and could be very
easily replicated by simply melting down some metal alloy and adding some
glass, crystals and quartz. Basically, the samples were of no use what so ever
to either the UFO or scientific communities.

This is the sort of answer, suggesting they had
already done it and were not interested in doing again, is what I expect from
those who simply don’t have the proof they claim. I can’t tell you the number
of times that I have asked someone for their military records to support their
claims of military service and get a similar answer when they say that they
have done so and to do so again is pointless. I will also note when challenged
I do produce the military records to prove my claims. Here, rather than produce
the evidence, they refuse with a ridiculous excuse. If you wish to prove
something that is outside the mainstream you must expect repeated requests for
the evidence. That’s science. Repeatability.

Wharton concluded, “As regards Billy Meier's and
Michael Horn's ultimate failure to meet my challenge, the Billy Meier UFO case
can now only ever be regarded as, at best, a work of fiction. Let's not forget
thatMeier and Horn still
claim that Meier is in constant contact with the Plejarans to this very day,
[emphasis in the original] so this challenge should literally be a walk in the
park for them. What Michael Horn and Billy Meier fail to realize is that, by
failing to meet my challenge, it is actuallytheywho have proved that the Billy Meier
UFO case is fake.”

There are some other ways to investigate this.
For example, and according to Skeptics Guide to the Universe, it was shown, contrary
to what had been claimed for Meier, he had not predicted the Paris terror
attacks many years earlier. You can see the full article here:

Rather
than drag this out, I’ll let you all go to the sites to read both articles. I
will note, however, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that Meier did
anything other than make some vague statements that could be adapted to any of
a number of world events. It is not unlike saying there will be a major
earthquake in 2017 (remember you read it here first). I will add that I’m sure
that Horn will respond with a long list of other, supportive websites, so I
feel no obligation to do so here.

In
fact, for those interested in all this, there are any number of websites either
endorsing or rejecting Meier’s claims. MUFON is unneeded to give this nonsense
a platform because many others have done so, as seen by the number of websites
devoted to the Meier case. And while I know that I will now join the ranks of
the other “liars and deniers” of the Meier claims, I will also note that I
haven’t called anyone a name, suggested they were cowardly, had no integrity,
but have tried to provide all the information for those not familiar with a
case to come to an informed opinion.

Although
Kal Korff has discredited himself repeatedly with his antics, he accurately wrote,
in his book Spaceships of the Pleiades,
“The Billy Meier ‘evidence’ is now a money-making machine that shows no signs
of slowing down.” This says it all.

Sunday, July 09, 2017

This
week I spoke with Mark O’Connell about his authorized biography of Dr. J. Allen
Hynek, called The Close Encounters Man.
It is a work that not only spanned his career as an astronomer, but his
association with the Air Force as their scientific consultant dealing with
UFOs. You can listen to it here:

Although
I had lots of questions, as usual, the time got away from us. We talked about
how Hynek ended up as the scientific consultant to the Air Force’s various
projects and his evolution from arch-skeptic to a point where he began to think
in terms of possibility. That means, rather than rejecting all sightings that
had no ready explanation as impossible because there was no such thing as
interstellar travel, to the idea that some sightings had no easy explanation no
matter how in depth the investigation might have been.

And,
of course, there was talk of Hynek’s training as an astronomer and some of the
innovations that he implemented. Although his idea of a balloon-borne telescope
lifted above the Earth’s atmosphere was scrubbed by the Air Force before he
could get the telescope off the ground (pun intended and yes it has been
difficult to write about that without littering the commentary with puns), it
was an idea before its time. While most of us know Hynek as the UFO guy, it is
clear that he had a fine career as an astronomer as well.

Next
week’s guest: Don Ecker

Topic:
His travels through the world of UFOs and his troubles with MUFON.

Saturday, July 08, 2017

There
are those who don’t seem to understand that I have nothing against MUFON and
that I have great respect for the thousands of members who volunteer their
time, resources, effort, education and experience to the organization. I
certainly understand that when you have a full-time job, a family, and all
sorts of other obligations, it is tough to find time for UFOs. I get all that.

And,
I understand the First Amendment. It allows us to say any damned stupid thing
we want. It just doesn’t guarantee freedom from consequence. If you post a
racist rant to your Facebook page, you can expect that it will offend many, and
they, operating under the same First Amendment guarantees, have the right to
condemn that rant for what it is.

This
is sort of the situation that exists today at the top of MUFON. Please note
here that I am referring, not to the rank and file, but to specific members of
the leadership of that organization who are found in the Inner Circle. The
first reaction to that rant by the man at the very top, Jan Harzan, the
Executive Director, was to condemn those who found the rant as offensive as
“haters.” His purpose was to support a colleague, which is not necessarily a
bad thing to do, but by labeling those who objected to the racist comments as
haters he just poured gasoline on the fire.

Once
the offensive post was noticed, then the proper action was to condemn it and
not those who objected to it. It might seem that Harzan did not have the
authority to unilaterally fire the offending party (though he did), but he
certainly could have made that clear rather than do what he could to offend
more people. Eventually, when it became evident that this was not something
that could be brushed aside, Harzan removed the man, John Ventre, from his
position as a State Director. I did invite Ventre on my radio program but he
declined the offer.

As
I was researching this first problem, I learned of MUFON’s the Inner Circle,
and discovered that the main qualification for membership there was five
thousand dollars handed over yearly. I did a little additional research and learned
that another member of that elite group had also engaged in some rather disgusting
racist rants. Harzan seemed unconcerned, telling me that if she had been a
State Director, he would have fired her… but no indication that he would refund
her money or remove her from this Inner Circle.

Listening
to Harzan, it seemed that the Inner Circle has no influence over the activities
of MUFON, so that it something of a non-issue. Harzan said that it is a
donation level. Of course, according the page on the MUFON website, “Inner Circle members provide advisory
guidance [emphasis added] to MUFON,” which certainly sounds like there is
more to it than just handing over five grand each year. Although Harzan
downplayed it, the conclusion I draw is that the Inner Circle does have
influence and given that, it would seem that a review of the qualifications
might be in order. Please note here that I am not suggesting that all members
of the Inner Circle are a problem, only a couple of them who have expressed
attitudes that don’t seem to be reflected by the mainstream of America.

Since I posted the material about
this controversy, I have received a number of emails from MUFON members, some
of them holding important positions. The attitude of them seems to be that
Harzan has done a lot of good for MUFON and that he had brought in a great deal
of money.

But I have to ask, “At what expense
and is that the only important criterion?”

First, take a look at how some of
that income has been raised. We are treated to Hangar 1, which can only be described as fiction with a shaky base
in reality. It is similar to those movies that are labeled, “based on a true
story,” which means that a name or two might be real or an event that was sort
of the same took place at some point, maybe. When you check out the facts, you
see that the film makers veered into the weeds early on and never got out of
them. You might say that any similarity to a real event is more accident than
intent.

Some of those who wrote to me
privately suggested that some of the Hangar
1 episodes were very good, but I’m thinking that the general population,
who is not immersed as deeply in UFOs as we are might not make that
distinction. When confronted with the tale of the boy abducted to serve in an
alien army for twenty years only to be returned to his bed some fifteen minutes
later might conclude that all the information of that particular series is
bogus. The excuse is that MUFON couldn’t control what the producers were doing,
but there was nothing to separate MUFON from that tale. MUFON, according to the
latest issues of the Journal (which
used to be the MUFON UFO Journal) seems
to still embrace the series.

In fact, it seems that they doubled
down with their symposium about a Secret Space Program. Now taking the stage
are two men who claim involvement in this secret program, and who have traveled
through space and time. They are being given a platform from which to tell
their incredible tales. The excuse? Well, we just want to let the membership
decide for themselves if these stories are to be believed. Really? There isn’t
a conclusion to be drawn at this point about the reality of these tales? Ten
seconds after hearing about the time travel aspects, the conclusion should be
obvious.

But the bottom line here is the
bottom line. These sorts of sensational stories bring in people to listen to
them. It’s not about revealing a secret space program, but about bringing in
money. This is entertainment but certainly not science.

That’s the thing that I’ve heard most
often in defense of Harzan and the MUFON leadership. He has brought in money
and brought in new members like those who responded to the Hangar 1 program. MUFON is receiving more UFO reports today than it
has in years past but is all that a good thing? If you are doing that at the
expense of scientific research and the claims of scientific methodology, then
haven’t your violated your stated mission?

If you are interested in science and
serious investigation of UFOs, then how can you support a symposium program
that has no basis in fact? We have these incredible tales but no evidence any
of them are true and yet the reason these people are given a platform is
allegedly so the membership can make up its mind about the truth. But doesn’t
this also require that there be truth in what is being said rather than a story
that is more science fiction that science fact? By giving them a platform,
isn’t the MUFON leadership suggesting that there is some credibility to what
they are saying, even if it involves time traveling men with absolutely no
evidence they traveled in time. At what point should the membership just say,
“No,” and then return to the original concept of scientific investigation of sightings
of unusual things (not wanting to bias the argument I used generic terms but we
all know what I mean)?

The other thing that I have heard and
think is hilarious is that others, politicians of the past, have made similar
if not worse racist comments and some of them even belonged to the KKK. But
we’re talking of events more than a half century old not something that was said
or done last month.

Earl Butz

I’m not going to spend any more time
on this but ask, “How does that apply in today’s world? Haven’t we all grown a
great deal since then?” This sort of defense of the racist rants by members of
the Inner Circle shouldn’t be tolerated not in 2017. There is enough hate out
there, enough of the racism out there, that an organization devoted to UFO
research must not allow it in its ranks. Yes, as I have said, there is free speech but
there are also consequences for that speech and while some suggest that racism
in the past was acceptable, I remind those that Earl Butz told a racist joke in
1978 that resulted in his resignation from the President Ford’s cabinet. You
would have thought that we all would have learned from that, but apparently
not.

I’ll make one final comment for the
rank and file membership. You end up with the organization you deserve. By not
speaking up, you allow the organization to deteriorate into a parody of itself.
If you find listening to time travelers telling you about a secret space
program that allowed them to visit distant planets, then you are in the right
place. If, on the other hand, you desire a program that might resolve the
riddle we all find so fascinating, then let the leadership know because, at the
moment, they don’t seem to care.